Chuck Todd: Middle East Worse Off Under Obama

The Middle East will be less stable after President Barack Obama leaves office than it was before he entered the White House, said NBC's "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd.

"The fact is he [Obama] was elected, he was nominated to get the country out of war in the Middle East. There was a promise that his presidency would bring stability to the Middle East, would bring some new opportunities, a conversation with the Muslim world, all of those things," Todd told radio show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.

"And the fact of the matter is, it's going to be less stable when he leaves office. Unless something magical happens in the next two years."

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Todd didn't get specific about Obama's role in stoking instability, but suggested that it stemmed from a "misreading of the Arab Spring" among other "circumstances." He did, however, add that some of the instability in the Middle East would likely have existed no matter who was president.

During the show, Todd also reflected on Obama's political psychology and the way he views the opinion of the public as well as his political adversaries.

"When it comes to Washington politics, and there is sort of a sense of tone deafness that he [Obama] has sometimes, and it is something that [former Presidents Ronald] Reagan and [Bill] Clinton did not have," he said.

Todd said Reagan and Clinton were comparatively far better at sensing the public mood and cared more about maintaining high public approval ratings.

"I think he's sort of, he's set in his ways … I think in the last two years he's resigned to his station. He sort of believes the idea that comes mainly from the left that the Republicans are refusing to work with him, they're not going to work with him on anything, so why bother?